Shower heads with a variable spray pattern are known. Typically, the spray pattern is varied by rotating a portion of the shower head by hand. The spray pattern may be continuously variable, or with some shower head devices it is varied as discrete steps.
One such shower head device having discrete steps is one in which there are several spray pattern derived from several different aperture arrangements, such as fine, course, broad and no spray (water just passes through a single hole), as the periphery of the shower head is rotated by hand. The head is able to be clicked into place so that the chosen aperture arrangement is aligned with a delivery conduit, so that the water passes through the selected aperture arrangement.
A deficiency associated with this prior art is that for hand-held shower heads having a user adjustable spray pattern, to vary the spray pattern a user must use two hands to rotate the head to alter the spray pattern.
Attempts have been made to provide a shower head that can be adjusted by an actuating mechanism in a single handed operation. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,384(Chan et al) describes a push button controlled shower head where the push button moves a spring-biased pawl that bears against a ratchet wheel which is rotated through a predetermined arcuate step. The ratchet wheel moves a shutter which directs water into a selected one of several races, each race being associated with a spray pattern. Also in another arrangement U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,711(Fan) discloses an adjustable shower head, in which a knob is turned to rotate a mechanism to adjust the spray pattern. A user is able to turn the knob with their thumb, whilst holding the handle to continuously adjust the spray from a selection of spray patterns. However, one disadvantage with such “single-handed operation” shower heads, is that if the user is elderly, weak or infirm, they may have difficulty in adjusting the shower head spray pattern.
The object of the present invention is to provide a shower head that overcomes at least one of the problems associated with the prior art.